I heard something the other day that spoke to something I knew in my soul but couldn’t articulate. Especially in western nations, we’ve cultivated so much comfort and convenience in our daily lives that we’ve forgotten how to deal with inevitable struggle. Life is a balance between pain and bliss, and we want to flip the bliss switch on like it’s our electric lights and never turn it off, but that’s not how it works. More and more, we isolate ourselves from the unpredictability of the world and people around us, without realizing that all we’re doing is moving deeper and deeper into pain as we move further and further from connection. When I hit play on YAMA UBA’s melancholy song “Isolation,” the haunting guitar tones and echoing beats feel like they’re speaking to the part of me that wants to hide away even if it hurts me. Instead, I’ll dive into the sweet saxophone and ominous synths and dance like a spider in the night…hoping to catch others in my web.
YAMA UBA just released a new music video for “Isolation,” a track off of the Silhouettes album on Psychic Eye Records and Ratskin Records — you can get it here. Watch “Isolation” below…and check out their cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” they dropped on Inauguration Day.
Feeling dead, yet so alive
You’re the spider dancing in the night
No one sees you, but you’re always there
A silent shadow of hair and despair
Directed by Akiko Sampson and Winter Zora
